Jennifer Cassam and colleagues describe what they learned from auditing drug administration across three community nursing services

In April 2011, three providers of community services in Brent and Ealing, in London, and Harrow, in Middlesex, integrated with an acute NHS provider, Ealing Hospital. As part of a newly merged integrated care organisation, the community health services pharmacist undertook an extensive review of all medicines management processes and activities to ensure that they were safe. One of the recommendations of the review was to harmonise processes, practices, policies and guidance documents between the three community services providers. This article describes the process of developing a community nursing drug chart, which involved auditing drug administration in community nursing sites across the three boroughs, consulting a focus group of nursing service leads and assessing how the chart compared with national standards. The aim of the article is to share the process and the drug chart with other community service providers.